"Virtual Worlds in Healthcare Settings"
John Lester, Linden Lab (the creators of Second Life; http://lindenlab.com/ )

When: Friday, January 30, 2009, Noon
Where: Auditorium G, DHMC

There are burgeoning applications of "virtual worlds" to health care and
education. Virtual worlds, such as Second Life, are computer/network-based
simulated environments that users "inhabit" and interact in via avatars. The
systems accesses a computer-simulated world and presents perceptual stimuli
to the user, who in turn manipulates elements of the modeled world and thus
experiences "telepresence" to a certain degree. Modeled worlds may appear
similar to the real world or instead depict alternate worlds. The modeled
world may simulate rules based on the real world or some hybrid alternate
world. Communication is usually textual, with real-time voice communication
using VOIP also possible. [Borrowed from the Wikipedia.]

But what about healthcare and education? "... The Heart Murmur Sim provides
an educational virtual world for cardiac auscultation training that enables
clinical students to tour a virtual clinic and test their skills at
identifying the sounds of different types of heart murmurs. The Second Life
Virtual Hallucinations Lab aims to educate people about schizophrenic
hallucinations. The Gene Pool is an interactive genetics lab and learning
area featuring simulated lab experiments, tutorials, and simple videos to
enhance the learning experience. The Virtual Neurological Education Centre
(VNEC) demonstrates a virtual simulated online experience where people are
able to actively expose themselves to the most common symptoms that a person
suffering from a neurological disability may encounter..." (J Med Internet
Res. 2008 Jul-Sep; 10(3): e21. Published online 2008 August 5. doi:
10.2196/jmir.1029.)

John Lester joined Linden Lab in 2005. His work there focuses on applying
virtual worlds for healthcare teaching, research, and data visualization.
Previously he was the Information Technology Director in the Neurology
Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he pioneered the use of the
web in 1993 to create online communities for supporting patients dealing
with neurological disorders. At Harvard Medical School he created online
collaborative environments for professors and students to advance the
case-based teaching method in medical education. At Massachusetts General
Hospital, he created BrainTalk Communities, an organization whose mission is
to provide online environments for patient and caregiver self-help groups
focused on neurological disorders.

Bill Garrity
Andy Gettinger
Jason Moore
Jenica Nelan